“My father’s faith was defining of who he was. My Dad fell short in many ways through his life, but he always went back to that faith. He always carried that with him no matter what, wherever he went. Everything that he did in his life, that was a foundation.”
—John Carter Cash, 2022
Iconic American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash will have an eight-foot statue of his likeness erected in Washington, DC, on September 24 of this year. He, along with civil rights leader Daisy Bates, will be the Arkansas representatives in the National Statuary Hall. Remarkably, Cash will be the first professional musician immortalized in the nation’s Capitol. The bronze representation depicts Cash with his classic Martin D-35 guitar slung over his shoulder and Bible in hand. Kevin Kresse, Arkansas native and sculptor, had this to say about his subject: “The thing I love about him is that he was so honest about all the issues and troubles that he had through his life. Every stone that I uncovered was another act of kindness and generosity.” I would like to commemorate the unveiling of the “Man in Black”’s statue by briefly illuminating his story of music, faith, and redemption through his relationship with God and Jesus Christ—or, as John would say in his earthy vernacular, the “Man in White.”
John R. Cash was born on February 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas. He was one of seven children born to parents Ray Cash and Carrie Cloveree. Amidst the Great Depression in 1935, encouraged by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal colonies, the Cash family moved to Dyess, Arkansas, in the hope to work land they may eventually own. As a child, John helped his family in the fields, picking and planting cotton. It was in this environment of back-breaking labor and poverty that Gospel music became a salve for the young John with its promise of hope and salvation. His mother introduced him to the tradition of Southern Gospel music through a book called Heavenly Highway Hymns, as Cash reflected in the linear notes for the album My Mother’s Hymn Book (2004): “The songs in that old book mean more to me than I can tell you . . . knowing that God loves music and that music brings hope for a better tomorrow.” It was through his mother’s encouragement and the family’s regular church attendance that the young John learned the relational power between God and music.
The defining moment of John’s childhood was the death of his older brother Jack. Cash described him as his “hero, my best friend, my big buddy, my mentor” who had “felt a call from God to be a minister of the Gospel.” On May 12, 1944, while John was fishing, his older brother went to cut oak trees into fence posts for three dollars a day and was almost split in two by an unguarded table saw. Jack died after several excruciating days and left the young John with an irreconcilable grief that endured throughout his life, as described by his wife June Carter many years later, “John shivers in his dreams and sometimes calls for Jack, but the angels sing a louder song, and Jack ain’t coming back.”
I became conscious of a very clear, simple idea: I was not in charge of my destiny.
Cash enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1950 shortly after the beginning of the Korean War. During basic training in San Antonio, Texas, he met his first wife Vivian Liberto, whom he married in 1954 after his tenure as a Morse code operator in West Germany. The young couple moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and Cash auditioned for the now legendary Sun Records owner/producer Sam Phillips. He had his first number one single with “I Walk The Line” (1956) and toured extensively with fellow Sun Records labelmates Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and future wife June Carter. Unfortunately, during this time, Cash developed a dependency on amphetamines and barbiturates, as he reflected regrettably upon in a 1997 interview: “I was taking pills for a while, and then the pills started taking me.”
His severe drug dependency perpetuated for more than a decade and reached fever pitch in 1967 when Cash decided to crawl into the sprawling darkness of Nickajack Cave to “never . . . see another dawn.” In the depths of his dark night of the soul, Cash had a moment of divine revelation:
I thought I’d left [God], but he hadn’t left me. I felt something very powerful start to happen to me, a sensation of utter peace, clarity, and sobriety. . . . There in Nickajack Cave I became conscious of a very clear, simple idea: I was not in charge of my destiny. (Cash, Cash: The Autobiography)
It was from this moment that God reordered and reoriented Cash’s mind, body, and soul to him. It was this spiritual turning point that became the lightning rod for Cash to embark on his lifelong commitment to God and redemption:
God had done more than speak to me. He had revealed his will to me through other people, family, and friends. The greatest joy of my life was that I no longer felt separated from him. Now he is my Counselor, my Rock of Ages to stand upon. (Cash, Cash: The Autobiography)
In 1968, his first wife Vivian filed for divorce, and Cash married his lifelong partner June Carter. Not long after, their first and only child John Carter Cash was born. Cash then embarked on what he described as his “most ambitious project” to date: the movie Gospel Road: A Story of Jesus (1973). In Gospel Road—the movie and the album—Cash narrates the story of Jesus of Nazareth as he and June visit the holy sites and perform Gospel songs. One of my favorite moments is Cash being baptized in the Jordan River by Reverend Jimmy Snow. There is such joyful humility in those moments. It was also during this fruitful period that Cash recorded and released the iconic Live at Folsom Prison (1968) and Live at San Quentin (1969) albums. The records exhibit Cash’s unique balance between preacher and outlaw as he sings with equal gusto about faith and crime with tracks like “Cocaine Blues” and “Peace in the Valley.” Perhaps the most riveting element of the recordings is the palpable kinship between prisoner and performer, where the God-given dignity of the human person was ever present in Cash’s mind. “By doing a prison concert, we were letting inmates know that somewhere out in the free world was somebody who cared for them as human beings.” One of the shows even inspired San Quentin inmate Merle Haggard to turn away from a life of petty crime and embark on his own iconic country music career.
The greatest joy of my life was that I no longer felt separated from him. Now he is my Counselor, my Rock of Ages to stand upon.
The prison shows and subsequent albums were a huge commercial success and led ABC to offer Cash an opportunity to host his own television program. The Johnny Cash Show ran fifty-eight episodes from 1969–1971 and included performances and interviews with the cultural influencers of the time including Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Linda Ronstadt, and many others. However, Cash came into conflict with the ABC executives who harangued him for talking about his faith on network television. His response was in classic Cash style:
Well, then, you’re producing the wrong man here, because Gospel music—and the word ‘Gospel’ means ‘the Good News about Jesus Christ’—is a part of who I am and part of what I do. I don’t cram anything down people’s throats, but neither do I make apologies for it. . . . I have to tell it like it is . . . and I’m not going to compromise. (Cash, Cash: The Autobiography)
Cash always struggled to live his faith as a public person in the secular world. It was his friend and confidant Billy Graham who encouraged and helped Cash strike a balance throughout his long career. Graham was born in 1918, ordained as a Southern Baptist minister in 1939, and was arguably one of the most influential Christian leaders of the twentieth century. Cash first met Graham at his house in Hendersonville in 1970. Graham made a strong impression on Cash and invited him and June to sing at one of his popular crusades, which they continued to support for many years to come. Billy Graham was a constant source of spiritual guidance to Cash over his lifetime. He encouraged John to keep singing the outlaw songs like “Folsom Prison Blues,” but to always balance them with a Gospel number. He gave John some solid advice: “Don’t apologize for who you are and what you’ve done in the past, be who you are and do what you do.”
At a similar time, Cash was invited to meet and perform for then-President Richard Nixon. Cash described his time with Nixon and wife Pat as cordial and jovial as he recalled how Nixon let him “lie down and stretch out on the Lincoln bed” without even charging him. Cash supported Nixon but got behind Jimmy Carter (cousin to June Carter) in the late 1970s. Cash was a man who wasn’t tied down with party loyalty; he was allied to his own moral convictions based upon his hard-won life experience and unshakable Christian faith. He was both a conservative who believed in traditional Christian values and loved his country with a patriotic zeal; and also a progressive, who championed the civil rights movement and advocated for Native Americans, veterans, prisoners, people struggling from drug dependency, and other marginalized members of the community.
Cash was many things throughout his life: Christian, father, husband, son, cotton picker, drug dependent, conservative, liberal, patriot, soldier, activist, outlaw; but above all, he will be remembered for his music. He released over ninety-seven albums throughout his five decade-long career; sold over 90 million records; and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll, Country, and Gospel Halls of Fame. Yet the personal priorities of his life were always his family and faith. He described the Bible as “the infallible, indisputable Word of God” and always carried one with him, endlessly inspired by its wisdom, beauty, and truth. He even obtained a degree in theology, became an ordained minister, and recorded the entire New Testament in his bold, beautiful baritone. It was his voice that his mother described as “the gift” which reminded John “that the music in me was something special given by God. My job was to care for it and use it well; I was its bearer, not its owner.”
Johnny Cash walked the line and embodied the contradictions of the American soul, and his inclusion in the National Statuary Hall in Washington, DC, is an icon of redemption that tells the story of the transformative power and love of God in the heart of every man. Johnny Cash’s music, faith, life, and legacy will inspire generations to pick up the cross and follow Jesus, as he did, with all his imperfect and humble humanity. I’d like to leave you with the final words from Cash’s only novel, Man in White, which details the life of his hero St. Paul, whom he felt shared the same mission to “conquer the world in the name of Jesus Christ”:
I’ve been to Damascus
And I didn’t go by air
I walked upon the paved Roman Way
I stood at the very spot
Where a brilliant light once shone
And I saw a fleeting flicker there that day
But it needn’t be Damascus
And it needn’t be on a road
And it needn’t be a lofty mountain height
It could be in a closet
And it could be at the door
That, if opened, glows the glorious, blinding light.